Pool of Minority Engineers May Be Shrinking : Education: Professionals are meeting to discuss the failure of schools to produce more graduates and of industry to keep them happy.

Darla S. Ligh, a mechanical engineer for Duquesne Light Co. in Pittsburgh, says she is tired of feeling isolated. She was one of the few blacks studying engineering at the University of Pittsburgh and now is one of a few black engineers working at the utility.

“We had 30 minorities in our college class and only two graduated,” Ligh said. “It is hard becoming an engineer because you feel isolated and don’t have the cushion of the good ol’ boy network. It’s still there, and it is depressing.”

The failure of schools to produce more minority engineers and of industry to keep those who do graduate happy in their jobs is a major topic this week at a meeting of about 400 educators, engineers and corporate executives who are seeking to increase the nation’s pool of black, Latino and Native American engineers.

This year, the gathering is concerned that recent gains could be wiped out by layoffs in recession-racked industries, educational cutbacks that could take a toll on minority programs and backlash against so-called affirmative action hiring programs that are increasingly viewed as giving preferential treatment to minorities at the expense of whites.

“Companies today are very committed to hiring minority engineers, but we’re in danger of losing the momentum we’ve had in the past,” said George Campbell, president of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, a New York-based foundation that is the largest private donor of scholarships for minority engineering students.

Campbell said minority enrollment in engineering schools is growing, but donations from 190 corporate sponsors for NACME’s scholarship fund, which sponsors 10% of all minority engineering students, are leveling off in 1991.

“There are fewer obstacles now than there were for minorities who want to be engineers,” Campbell said in an interview. “But the lack of financial resources is the single greatest factor inhibiting minority enrollment. It’s a shame to attract more minority students and then not be able to support them in the pipeline.”

Minority enrollment in undergraduate engineering schools climbed to a record 15.4% of total enrollment during the current school year, up from 10.1% in 1989-1990. In the 1973-1974 school year, minorities accounted for only 4.1% of undergraduate engineering students nationally.

But blacks, Latinos and Native Americans account for barely 5% of the nation’s working engineers.

Minority students--with the exception of Asian Americans--traditionally have shunned engineering because of the absence of role models in their communities. But now, Campbell said, it is the educational system itself that is to blame for problems attracting minorities.

Campbell said as many as 75% of the minorities who enroll in engineering schools do not graduate, a much greater attrition rate than for the general population. The drop-off is caused in part by lack of funding for minority student support groups and the absence of minority faculty members, he said.

Luther S. Williams, assistant director for education and human resources at the National Science Foundation, said the shortage of minorities in engineering schools eventually could exacerbate a growing shortage of technical workers. And that, he said, could hurt the nation’s ability to compete in high-tech fields against other nations.

Williams said a NSF study in 1989 estimated that by the year 2009, when two out of three people entering the work force will be women or minorities, the nation will face a shortage of 660,000 engineering and science graduates.

For now, Campbell said the nation may not be able to sustain even the current number of minority engineers because corporate layoffs, particularly from the defense shakeout in Southern California, could hurt their ranks.

“The last hired is often a minority, and they can be the first fired,” Campbell said. “But diversity is too important an issue to sacrifice to short-term economic concerns.”

Campbell said companies have become more sensitive to issues of racial and sexual discrimination in the workplace. But he said minorities still become frustrated at subtle barriers to their advancement into management. Minorities can also feel intense pressure to excel rather than be average performers because they are so few in number and because their performance is judged as representative of the abilities of their ethnic groups, he said.

Campbell said he believes that foes of affirmative action threaten the continuation of minority scholarship and hiring programs. As an example, he cited the Department of Education’s attempt in December to abolish scholarship awards based on race.